The Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) is considering a proposal to remove the prescribed technical requirements for four aspects of passenger cars — wheel-hub assemblies, brake fluid, ground clearance and accelerator controls — giving carmakers greater flexibility in how they design and certify vehicles, and potentially bringing down homologation costs, sources told Business Standard.
The proposal was discussed at a meeting of the ministry with industry stakeholders, a few months ago, the sources said.
The deregulation could reduce the testing and compliance burden on automakers, although the proposal does not specify which tests or certification requirements would be removed or relaxed. However, the proposal is being considered on the condition that the industry would ensure quality control and recall vehicles if failures are observed in the field, said the sources cited above.
Among the items being considered for potential deregulation, wheel-hub assemblies are the components (nuts and bolts) that secure a car’s wheels to the vehicle, while brake fluid transfers the force from the brake pedal to the braking system.
Ground clearance is the vertical space between the road surface and the lowest part of a vehicle’s chassis, and the accelerator control system is the mechanism through which the driver controls the vehicle’s acceleration.
The proposal suggesting deregulation of existing technical requirements for these items was submitted by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers (Siam) earlier this year.
The four requirements form a part of the broader type approval process for a new passenger vehicle (PV), which involves multiple vehicle- and component-level tests to ensure that the vehicles adhere to the prescribed quality and safety norms.
The proposal was discussed at a meeting of MoRTH with automobile industry stakeholders a few months back.
During the meeting, the Automotive Component Manufacturers Association (Acma) said that it would submit recommendations on deregulating brake-fluid requirements, adding that while deregulation of the proposed items was appreciated, some critical information related to brake fluids had to be documented.
During the meeting, MoRTH said that the responsibility for ensuring quality, after the aforementioned deregulation, would rest with vehicle manufacturers. It added that manufacturers would be responsible for recalling vehicles if failures were observed in the field.
The Siam has also asked for deregulation of testing requirements related to bumpers, brake hoses, hood latch systems, gradeability, hand holds and wheel rims. However, the request for these six systems was unlikely to be accepted by MoRTH.
MoRTH, Siam and Acma did not respond to queries emailed by Business Standard on this matter.
A June 2019 Indo-German automotive study put indicative testing charges for wheel-nut, ground-clearance and accelerator-performance tests at ₹23,700 combined, while hydraulic brake-fluid testing was estimated at ₹1.38 lakh.
The combined indicative testing charge for the four requirements was therefore about ₹1.62 lakh.
The study also estimated indicative vehicle-level testing charges for an “M1 category” passenger vehicle — a four-wheel vehicle meant to carry not more than 8 passengers — at ₹80.2 lakh.
The actual cost of homologation varies depending on the tests and activities required for each vehicle model, according to the study.
 "Carmakers may get more design freedom with easing of technical requirements")
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